The One Where Clint Is A Little ShT
by Rhiannon A. Christy
Summary: Day 16 of the FYDL 21 Day Darcy Lewis Crossover Challenge on Tumblr. Prompt: "I won a contest to assist your band for the day, and now I'm walking a Zebra?" Band/Fan!AU


Darcy stood at the paddock and just blinked. Alright, so she knew that celebrities could sometimes be a bit eccentric, especially rockstars, but this was a bit ridiculous.

"Ok, so what am I supposed to do with this?" Turning her attention from the paddock, Darcy stared at the man beside her.

"I don't know, keep her quiet, play with her, walk her. I don't care, just keep her out of sight until the party tonight." Clint leaned against one of the posts, a cheeky smile on his face. Colin and Steve were going to kill him, and it was going to be glorious.

"Right." Darcy just shook her head. She knew that Clint was a bit… well a bit, it was in all the magazines and the rest of the band members spoke of it often in interviews. Though she had always thought they were just exaggerating, giving a bit of color to their drummer. Being faced with entertaining a zebra for a day, she was beginning to believe every story she had heard.

"Well get to it Girlie, and maybe I'll save you a dance tonight." Clint winked at the young woman before heading back to the house.

"Yeah, like that's going to happen." Darcy sighed, this was not what she had expected when she won the chance to assist The Avengers for a day. She had thought she would be carrying instruments, speakers, most likely fetching coffee or making beer runs. But no, she was at the band's house/recording studio, watching over a zebra. Yeah, that seemed to be her life.

* * *

Colin slipped out the back door as quietly as he could. Damn, both him and Steve had told the guys they didn't want a party, they had an album to record and didn't really have time. Of course what the others heard was more along the lines of: "We just don't want to make a fuss, so why don't you do it for us." And now they had a house full of groupies, most of them drunk, and the party didn't even "officially" start for several hours yet.

He took a pull off his beer as he headed towards the paddock. They didn't own any horses, but the place came with it and they never bothered to tear it down. Mostly they used the place for parties during the summer. Though Clint had been after them to allow him to turn it into a mud wrestling pit. No matter what it was used for, right now it would be blissfully empty and no one would expect to find him there. It was too open, he was a city boy and only ever spent time at the house when they were recording.

As he moved closer to the paddock he realized that the place was not as empty as he thought. At first he figured Bucky had gone out, he did that sometimes when the crowd got too much. The problem with that was he quickly remembered seeing Bucky it the kitchen with Nat when he had left the house. After that he figured one of the groupies must have gone exploring, but once he got to the damn thing he was too dumb-struck to figure out anything.

"Um, who are you?" Apparently not enough to strike him silent.

"Oh shit!" Darcy jumped at the unexpected voice. She turned her back on the zebra, trying to hide the thing, but really what could she do? "I'm Darcy, the contest winner."

"Uh, what contest?" Colin watched as the strange young woman backed up against a zebra. This had the making of Clint all over it. "We didn't have any contest."

"Yeah, you did. It was all over the radio, win the chance to spend the day assisting The Avengers. I must say this isn't what I imagined at all." The zebra nudged her back and Darcy stumbled forward. She caught herself before she fell in front of… yep, that was Colin, he was always a little more dude-bro than Steve.

"Ok, um… I have no idea… we didn't… shit, I'm going to kill Clint." Colin ran a hand over his stubble, scratching lightly at his cheek. Clint was so dead. "Darcy, I'm so sorry, but I think you've been had."

"Had? It was all over the radio, when I won my travel was all paid for and Clint met me at the airport. That seems like a very elaborate joke." Darcy huffed as the zebra nudged her in the back again.

The whole band was going to kill Clint, Pepper was going to kill him, just everyone was going to kill him. Fuck, this was going to be a PR nightmare.

"Look, Clint is an idiot. That's pretty much it. None of signed off on a contest lately, and I'm guessing that Clint did this all on his own. Again I'm sorry." Fuck, if he didn't think fast the woman might sue. They really didn't need anymore bad publicity after the whole monkey disaster last year at Disney World.

"So, his idea of a joke is making a fan look after a zebra?" Darcy looked back at the animal behind her and then back to Colin. Whatever floats your boat and all that, but she didn't get it.

"It's more like a joke on Steve and I. They're throwing a birthday party for us, and I'm pretty sure that thing is supposed to be our present." He rolled his eyes, at least it was better than the year he bought them the full size replica of them… fully anatomically correct. "Speaking of parties, as an apology why don't you come on up to the house. It doesn't start for a few hours, but by that point everyone will be too drunk. Might as well have some fun now, I'll even introduce you to the rest of the guys and let you watch as they tear Clint apart."

"I would really have to be stupid to say no." Moving quickly away from the zebra, Darcy carefully climbed over the paddock fence. Her heart skipped a beat as Colin slipped his hands around her waist and helped her down. "Thanks. Hey can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot." Colin winked down at the woman beside him. At least Clint had good taste when it came to choosing a winner.

"Do you and your brother have a thing about zebras or something?" It seemed like a strange gift to give someone. Then again what she had heard of Clint…

"Not a bit." Colin wrapped an arm around Darcy's shoulder, pulling her into them as they headed towards the house.

"Ah." Darcy looked up beside her, both of them busting up laughing after their eyes met. Alright, so the contest turned out to be bogus. That was fine, if it meant that she ended the day hanging out with her favorite band on Colin's arm… yeah she was fine with that.

* * *

Author's Note: Ok, so I got an idea for this one. I'm sorry if it isn't well written or filled with typos and whatnot. I'm still sick and wrote a lot of this while on cold and allergy meds. As long s things work out I'm planning on doing days 20 & 21.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.


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